“Good sir, the gentlemen are merely enjoying a much-deserved coffee break,” Vincent said in his snobbiest voice.
“Are you coming to the opening tonight?” Mark asked.
“Of course he will,” Bobby laughed. “Free food.”
“Yes, I’ll be there, and I’ll expect you reprobates to be on your best behavior,” I said sternly, attempting to hold back a grin.
Vincent shook his head. “That cute girl from the coffee shop?”
“Yes.” I could almost feel my chest puffing up with pride that everyone was going to know Tara was my girl.
“Fling or long haul?” Mark asked.
“Permanent, I hope,” I said, nodding to myself.
“Wow, guys, he ain’t joking around,” Vincent chuckled.
“I don’t know,” Mark drawled, giving me a shifty look. “We might have to–”
“Heads!” A voice screamed from above us.
I couldn’t see what was falling, but instantly shoved the three of them farther down the corridor. Spinning to see how close the falling objects were, I managed to block my face with my arm just as the lengths of falling rebar clattered all around and against me, slicing open my skin.
13
_____
Tara
After sending another text, I finished my tea and got ready to leave the coffee shop.
It was hard not to feel absolutely crushed, but I tried to hold on to the hope that there was a perfectly good reason for Jared not showing up. After all, we’d been together barely a week. He didn’t owe me anything. Just because my feelings were far too strong and had come on far too fast didn’t mean that he had to reciprocate. It would have been nice, though, I thought sadly.
The cold, sick feeling in the pit of my stomach was spreading. There was a very good chance that I’d been reading more into the relationship than was actually there. Had I wanted so much to believe that we were falling in love that I saw things that weren’t even there?
I went home feeling like there was a black cloud overhead, disgusted with myself. Whatever Jared’s reason for not showing up was, it didn’t even matter. He probably had a huge, interesting life, and I could be the girl he hung out with when he had a slow weekend.
Even as I heard the way I was talking to myself, I knew it was wrong, but couldn’t stop it. Falling across the bed, one of my many pillows still smelled just a tiny bit like Jared.
That did it. The sobs burst from my chest like an explosion. Before I even knew what was happening, my back was heaving as tears streamed down my face.
Was I really so pathetic that I could imagine someone like Jared loving me? It was ludicrous.
After nearly an hour of crying like a child, I straightened up and threw away the tissues that had begun to pile up around me like snow drifts.
What would Angela do in this sort of situation? She’d call and get to the bottom of this, and not accept such treatment.
My sister was pushy, but she always got her way. Just this once, it might be good for me to at least pretend to have a backbone.
I decided to call one more time before drowning my sorrow in the half pint of ice cream hiding in the back of my fridge for just such an emergency. My hands shook as I picked up my phone and hit the buttons.
“Hello?”
It was a woman’s voice. An entirely new set of fears flooded my mind. I didn’t even consider that he might be married. What an idiot.
Every instinct said to hang up immediately, but I needed to know the truth. “Hello, is Jared there, please?”
“He is, but he can’t really talk right now,” she said slowly.